Contemptible, and its Opposite

The Brits are gone. Whatever England was for the last thousand years of its history, it isn't anymore. It is impossible to express my contempt, not so much for the disgraceful behavior of the British "military" sailors who cooperated assiduously with their Iranian captors' propaganda efforts, as much for their superiors who responded by talking about how bravely and appropriately they had behaved. These people are considered British navy by the heirs of Nelson? People who do whatever their captors tell them to do because the mean old captors didn't let them sleep and (gasp! the humanity!) yelled at them?????

I simply ask you: is it possible to imagine such behavior either (a) from British officers, or even civilians, of the World War II generation that endured the Blitz, if said officers or civilians were to be captured by the Japanese or Germans, or (b) from today's American Marines or Army infantry?

I can't link off-hand to the descriptions of how the American P.O.W's in Vietnam behaved -- where each man, despite being kept in permanent solitary confinement, would endure day after day of torture (not the "torture" that Americans are accused of imposing on modern terrorists, but genuine torture), pushing themselves to the absolute limits of human endurance, because each knew that every day they held out was a day that their brother officers' torture was postponed. But I can link to these reminiscenses of one of the American Marines who was taken hostage by this same President of Iran and his buddies, back in the days when Jimmy Carter's residence in the White House gave thugs all over the world the confidence that they could abuse Americans with complete impunity. This is how actual soldiers behave when they are surrounded and ultimately captured.

Spare me, by the way, the "how would you have behaved in that situation, and how can you pass judgment?" If I were a soldier, and if I had received the training and inherited the sense of honor and duty that American soldiers receive and inherit, then I firmly believe I would have behaved far more like an American POW than like the British collaborators of last week. For the American military produces American military men. What do you think are the odds that this bunch of national disgraces will receive the same treatment from their peers and government that lone collaborator Army Sgt. Joe Subic received?

HT: John Derbyshire, a former Englishman who, unlike the Brits' commanding officers, is not an admirer of the captives' contemptible behavior.